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Loving My Actual Life - Alexandra Kuykendall

The Need

I am a multitasking maniac whose life pace makes NASCAR drivers jealous. The backdrop to all that busyness is constant noise. Both around me and in my head. I don’t have space to think. I frequently tell my children to stop talking so I can remember why I walked over to a certain spot in the kitchen. I am at capacity. No, I’m past capacity, and I need to bring the noise level down to hear my own thoughts. To even remember who I am.

I know I will miss the people noise someday, but practically speaking, I make phone calls in my laundry room just so I can hear the person on the other end, and I hide in my basement office for some alone time.

But as I’m trying to create some quiet space, what am I actually doing down there in my mom cave? I’m back on my computer, taking in all kinds of mental noise. Along with the constant audible noise is the virtual clamor that is at minimum a nonstop chatter. Email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It is, of course, insta-crazy.

To top it off, I am an introvert. I need quiet time to refuel, and I have a life where I am never alone (unless you count when I am driving to and from my dentist appointments, then, yes, I am alone twice a year). So purposely creating quiet is essential to my sanity. I’ve read that noisy surroundings decrease short-term memory1 and something as small as a cell phone ringing can increase your blood pressure.2 No wonder things feel off.

I know I have to start the experiment by stopping. It feels a bit counterintuitive to start with a stop, but my natural tendency when I’m overwhelmed is to do more, not less. I need to be more efficient. Get more things done in an hour, in 24 hours, in a week, than I did yesterday or the day before. I’ll get up earlier, stay up later, and multitask more resourcefully, whatever it takes to solve this problem. That’s what’s gotten me into this predicament in the first place; instead of pulling back, I tend to jump in. But perhaps the key before tackling everything with more is to stop. And so that is what I’m doing. Stopping the noise to be able to breathe and let my mind rest.

The Experiment

I intentionally add quiet to my days. To achieve this, I focus on two areas: actual quiet and virtual quiet.

My Actual Approach

Add thirty minutes of intentional alone time daily.

Eliminate social media use.

Set Sundays apart for a quieter routine.

DAY 1

Just to simplify things, I’ve decided to turn my life upside down with this experiment right in the middle of Christmas. Because nothing else is ever going on this time of year. The truth is, it’s like any life change: there’s never a perfect time. Besides, this experiment is about enjoying my actual life and that is always right now.

And to complicate the timing even more, a few days ago Derek bought me an early Christmas present, a fancy new phone. Three hours at the Apple store on a Saturday during the Christmas shopping season and he came home to me, a mess of a woman because while he was getting schooled on all things i, I took four children to the mall to look for basketball shoes that cost the equivalent of a down payment on a house.

He handed me the new phone and we promptly started to argue. It was all too much—the noise, the crowds, the salespeople who, bless them, were barely older than the child I was shopping for and unable to explain why the shoes or the phone cost so much!

In the middle of the argument, I held the phone in his direction. Take it back. If it’s going to cause this much conflict, I don’t want it. Not a great start to my new fancy phone, nor was it very gracious of me considering the time and money he just spent to put it in that very hand of mine. Within an hour of receiving this gift, I already had the impulse to turn it off.

The truth is, I need my phone with me. Especially when my children aren’t. If the school wants to let me know a child is throwing up or a coach needs to tell me practice is rained out and my girl is standing in the downpour, they need to be able to track me down. So I tend to keep my phone within earshot. But what I don’t need is the other noise this device constantly offers: Facebook telling me how awesome someone’s week in Hawaii is going or the newsfeed offering all kinds of fascinating stories on the latest trends in handbags.

So Gabi moved my social media icons off my main phone screen to minimize temptation (because my oldest child tends to be my tech support). I gave a little shout-out on Facebook and Instagram that I’d be off through the holidays (just in case anyone desperately missed me, because I was sure, or rather hoping, they would) and closed my computer. And my family